A Trip
for the Heart

By Kallum Jessica Englishby - Khao Sok Tour 2007

In April 2007 I was lucky enough to venture to the Khao Sok
jungle with Paddle Asia. I had arranged for my family, a
handful of friends and myself to take part in a four day
kayaking tour in celebration of my 21 years on the planet. The
long drive out to the National Park was….long, but was a fun
part of the trip thanks to Dave’s back catalog of jokes and
limericks. When we arrived at the dock in Khao Sok to board a
powered long tail boat to our even more remote destination we
had trouble catching the breath that the scenery seemed to
have take away from us. Our guides: Dave, Moo and Aew
continued like it was nothing special…sort of like ‘you aint
seen nothin’yet’. We boarded the long tail boat and started
our trek into the depths of the National Park.

It was the pictures of the floating bungalows on the Paddle
Asia website that sold me the Khao Sok jungle tour, that and
the high recommendations…and the whole kayaking thing. So as I
saw the bungalows appear as a modest paradise back dropped by
a spectacular jungle I became excited. An excitement that
didn’t leave me for the whole trip…and still remains with me
now when I think back to the time. We arrived at the floating
bungalows, oo ahh’d and squealed over the novelty of living on
water for a couple of days, put down our bags and jumped out
of our respective bungalows into the Khao Sok reservoir.
Brilliant. We then oo ahh’d and squealed over our lack of
buoyancy in the fresh water of Khao Sok (interesting fact)
then got out and ate a beautiful lunch. Every meal on our stay
was succeeding the last with explosive tastes of south
Thailand – I think it became hard to decide whether we were
waking up for the paddle or the food!

The paddles and treks we went on were spectacular. ‘Crack of
dawn’ paddles through the mist, day paddles where you can spot
wildlife such as hornbills and the Malay Sun Bear and evening
paddles with the spectacular sun setting into the darkness;
where the park creates mystical silhouettes – that in your
imagination could be anything. We climbed waterfalls, scaled
our way through an eerie cave and made our way to the top of a
steep cliff face to be overwhelmed by the most amazing view of
Khao Sok. Other times were filled with peace and shenanigans
amongst a group of people who I’m stoked to have shared the
experience with – this includes the Paddle Asia staff - who
are a hoot! I learnt a lot from the guides on the trip and
shared a lot of laughs with them; I was also spoiled with a
birthday cake! Two in fact! Anything that could be done to
make the trip unbelievable was done…with a huge amount of
love. Thanks for that Paddle Asia!

Not only was it an amazing opportunity to intimately explore
such a beautiful place – The Khao Sok kayak jungle tour was
hugely beneficial in healing the mind and soul. As tree
hugging as that sounds – this feeling of tranquility was
obtained by every one of us and remained with us longer after
our stay. When you are so far away from the roots of your life
and civilization, in a place surrounded by only water,
mountains and jungle sheltered by a sky spoiled only by
majestic birds and accompanied by a score of enigmatic
wildlife you gain a sense of retrospect on your life. Things
start to make sense, things start to become simple and you
understand that happiness is not in things…it’s in us.